Death

All posts tagged Death

Do you sometimes find yourself unable to let go of the past or stop worrying about the future? When I feel that way, I recall to mind a great Daoist story:

One day, while walking through the wilderness, a man encountered a vicious tiger. He ran for his life, and the tiger gave chase.

The man came to the edge of a cliff, and the tiger was almost upon him. Having no choice, he held on to a vine with both hands and climbed down.

Halfway down the cliff, the man looked up and saw the tiger at the top, baring its fangs. He looked down and saw another tiger at the bottom, waiting for his arrival and roaring at him. He was caught between the two.

Two rats, one white and one black, showed up on the vine above him. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about, they started gnawing on the vine.

He knew that as the rats kept gnawing, they would reach a point when the vine would no longer be able to support his weight. It would break and he would fall. He tried to shoo the rats away, but they kept coming back.

At that moment, he noticed a strawberry growing on the face of the cliff, not far away from him. It looked plump and ripe. Holding onto the vine with one hand and reaching out with the other, he plucked it.

With a tiger above, another below, and two rats continuing to gnaw on his vine, the man tasted the strawberry and found it absolutely delicious.

This story is all about living in the moment. Despite his perilous situation, the man chose not to let unrealized dangers paralyze him. He was able to seize the moment and savor it.

The story is full of metaphors. All the major elements in the story are representations that possess deeper meaning.

The top of the cliff represents the past. It’s where the man had been and where he came from. In terms of your personal timeline, this metaphor refers to all of your experiences and memories from the life that you have already lived.

Climbing up the vine, toward the top of the cliff, would be to revisit the past. The tiger at the top represents the danger of dwelling in the past too much. If we constantly beat ourselves up for not being able to do certain things as well as we should have, or if we wallow in regret and shame over mistakes we have made, then the tiger has wounded us with its sharp claws. If we cannot let go of negative experiences from the past that make us timid and afraid, or if we feel like victims because we come from a traumatic or perhaps abusive background, then the tiger has taken a painful bite out of us.

The tiger also represents the impossibility of going back in time to fix something. Sometimes we wish we can turn back the clock and do certain things over. Perhaps you think of the perfect comeback long after the right moment has passed; perhaps there was a special someone from high school that you should have approached but didn’t; perhaps you said something hurtful to a loved one and would do anything to take it back. Unfortunately, the pathway of time is a one-way street – the fearsome tiger guards the top of the cliff, and mere mortals may not pass.

The bottom of the cliff represents the future. It is the undiscovered country, the unwritten chapter. The future contains all of your dreams and fears, aspirations and disappointments, potential victories and possible setbacks. It is the mysterious and uncertain domain of tomorrow.

Climbing down the vine, closer to the bottom of the cliff, is to look ahead, anticipate and speculate about the future. The tiger at the bottom represents the danger of being excessively concerned about that which is yet to come — particularly at the expense of our ability to act, or to maintain peace of mind.

Many of us have had the experience of worrying endlessly about an upcoming performance, speech, or job interview. We think about all the things that can go wrong. We cannot get a good night’s sleep because we’re too nervous about the next day.

So what happens when the event comes around? Our inability to relax disconnects us from the creative genius of the Tao. We are not able to be at our best. We cannot channel all that nervous energy into effective action; instead, it turns right into tension and stress. We have climbed too low on the vine and gotten too close to the tiger, thus allowing it to cause us damage.

The tiger at the bottom also represents the ultimate finality of death. Death waits patiently for all of us in the future. It knows that sooner or later we will be within its grasp. When the tiger roars up at us, we feel the chilling winds of mortality.

The man’s position between the two tigers represents the present. Note that he hangs suspended in midair. In the same way, we too live suspended between the past and the future.

This thing we call “now” or “the present instant” can be quite an elusive concept. As soon as you point to an instant and define it as “now,” it slips past your finger and is no longer the present. Another instant, equally elusive, takes its place. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to pin it down.

The present also defies definition, just like the Tao. Even though we can measure time with great accuracy, our technical precision gives us no help at all in isolating that infinitesimal slice of zero-duration time. Although we have the technology to build an atomic clock with error margin less than ten billionth of a second, all the atomic clocks in the world cannot capture the magic of the present instant.

Although an instant of time is beyond our grasp, the paradox of existence is that the present is what we do have. Indeed, it is all we ever have. You can never have the past or the future; one is irretrievably gone and the other is yet to come. The present is here and now, and it is yours completely and unconditionally. No one can take it away from you, and you alone have the power to decide how to use it.

The vine represents life in the material world. Just as the man holds on to the vine with both hands, we too cling to physical life stubbornly. Our survival instincts compel us to literally hold on for dear life, and we won’t let go without a struggle.

Climbing down the vine isn’t an optional activity. The man, chased by the tiger, has no choice but to climb down. Similarly, once we are born into this world, we have no choice but to live out our lives from one moment to the next. Thus, the vine can also be seen as the main component of samsara – the cycle of birth and death.

The two rats represent the passage of time. They are black and white in color for the simple reason that they symbolize day and night.

The rats gnaw on the vine, making it weaker and weaker. This represents how each cycle of day and night brings us a little closer to death. When the vine breaks, the man plummets toward certain doom. In the same way, when a sufficient number of days and nights have passed, the physical life we cling to will be broken, and it will be time for the ultimate finality of death. We will have no choice but to confront the tiger.

Just as the man tries to shoo the rats away, we try to forestall aging and keep disease at bay. We have entire industries devoted to various measures to keep us young and healthy or, at the very least, to maintain the appearance of youth and health. Consider all the vitamins, supplements, treatments, health spas, hormone replacement therapies, face lifts, liposuctions, hair transplants, all manners of implants… the list goes on.

But just as the rats keep coming back, time marches ever onward and slows down for no one. Despite our best efforts, our time in this mortal plane remains limited.

The strawberry represents the astounding beauty, bliss, energy and vitality of the present moment. It is always there, always available for those who have the ability to see it and experience it.

For instance, at this very moment you can reach out with your awareness and feel this miracle of communication that allows thoughts and ideas to pass between us. You can feel how amazing it is that this interpersonal connection is possible at all. There is a wonder and marvelous beauty right here that we cannot easily put into words.

Step outside and place yourself in communion with nature. Bear silent witness to the genius of the Tao at work. Perceive reality as an endless interplay of natural forces, swirling around you as well as within you. From the macrocosmic to the microcosmic, sense how natural processes go about their business, regulated by an intrinsic intelligence far beyond our grasp.

There is so much beauty and goodness in each present moment and the infinite instant, that if you were to take in too much at once, you would be hopelessly overwhelmed. In the language of our story, we might say that the strawberry is full of incredibly delicious juice.

To pluck the strawberry is to seize the moment. When you do so, you are being mindful of the present, directing your attention to the flow that moves through you, and choosing to immerse fully in the river of the eternal now.

To taste the strawberry is fully savor the flavor of reality. When you do so, you begin to appreciate the miracle of existence and notice a beauty that is ever-present no matter where you look. This fills your heart with gladness and gratitude.

Plucking and tasting the strawberry may be much easier said than done. Most of the time, most of us have trouble tapping into the powerful state of mindfulness that allow us to seize the moment and savor reality. There are obstacles that get in the way.

The first obstacle, which most Tao cultivators have overcome, is the lack of awareness. Many people live each day mired in the past or worried about the future, unaware of the treasure of the present that they already possess. In terms of the story, it is as if the man is so busy looking up and down that he never notices the succulent fruit right next to him.

The second obstacle is more difficult, and most of us encounter it from time to time. Consider a scenario where the man sees the strawberry, but because he’s too concerned about the tiger above and fearful of the tiger below, he has no appetite. Although he knows quite well where the strawberry is, he has no interest in getting it.

Someone who’s faced with this obstacle may say, “It’s great to understand the metaphors in the story, but there’s a difference between that and putting the understanding into actual practice. I can see now that my goal should be to live in the moment, but how exactly do I do that?”

The story offers a clue. When the man saw the strawberry, he held onto the vine with one hand and reached out with the other. This action incorporates two essential elements: letting go and reaching out.

The man could not pluck the strawberry if he insisted on holding on with both hands. With both hands gripping the vine tightly, all he could do would be to stare at it. In order to get the prize, he needed to relax one hand and detach it from the vine.

It is exactly the same with life. The vine represents our physical existence on this material plane. Holding on to it tightly is equivalent to having strong attachments to material concerns. With such attachments, you cannot let go. This is a sure-fire way to prevent you from enjoying the present.

It sounds simple when we talk about it like this, but think of the people you know who are so focused on making and saving money that they never take the time to enjoy life. If you observe them you’ll see that they cannot relax even when they go through the motions. For instance, when they take a vacation, they cannot stop thinking about the office. In the language of our story, such people have a death-grip on the vine.

I know of a gentleman whose attachment was the stock market. He was a day trader who watched the market minute-by-minute. When friends talked to him on the phone, they could always tell when his stock symbols scrolled across the electronic ticker tape, because his replies would suddenly become much slower as he pretended to be listening. This was a clear case where his strong attachment to material concerns completely blocked his ability to enjoy conversations with old friends – one of the best things in life.

The other element, equally important, is to reach out, to explore. The comfort zone may be comfortable, but it also offers nothing new. In order to get the strawberry, you need to venture beyond the familiar, to probe for a prize that is within sight but not quite within grasp.

The Tao manifests itself in life, and the characteristic of life is that it grows. Life is constantly exploring new territories, taking chances, and going places it hasn’t been before. If we do the same, we will quickly find that life is fresh and exciting and full of possibilities. We will see that living in the present is both easy and exhiliarating.

Thus, our story teaches that when we have trouble living fully and mindfully in the moment, we only need to ask ourselves questions like the following:

What are my attachments? What are some things I cannot let go? What attachments am I willing to release, in order to live life to the fullest?

Am I learning anything new? Meeting new people? Doing anything I haven’t done before? What might be some fun subjects that I can study? What might be some interesting projects I can tackle?

Your answers to questions like these will point out the path you should follow. Formulate your plans accordingly.

As you follow your plan of action to live mindfully in the moment, you will find it easier and easier to stop dwelling in the past or worrying excessively about the future. As you enjoy the present more and more, you will also find that unpleasant or even painful memories no longer affect you; concerns or even fears about future uncertainties no longer paralyze you.

You will find that the present is literally a wonderful present. It is a miraculous gift filled with peace, contentment, energy, and excitement. It is a box full of delicious strawberries.

You begin to realize that the only requirement to be deserving of such a gift is that you must accept it and enjoy it. You are amazed that there are people who cannot receive it. Some do not even realize it is being offered to them. They do not recognize it as their birthright, nor do they understand its incredible value.

You collect your thoughts back into yourself. It is time to unwrap your own present.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my own life and what that means to me and the people around me. My wife shared two videos with me a couple of days ago, video footage of my wife and a dear friend of ours who spoke about my recent death experience and what it meant to them, to their feelings, how that day affected them and what I mean to them. This was a wonderful and very moving experience for me, to see and hear my wife say how devastating that event was for her, how she saw me die in front of her, how she saw the paramedic working on me in the ambulance, the shock of seeing my heart racing to the point of giving up its struggle and to hearing my words as I was brought back to the land of the living, then to hear her words, her feelings and her observations of me since that event, her worries, her concerns and her fear of loosing me again, then also to see and hear the words of our friend, to see her tears, to feel her heartbreak and the effects that that day brought to her. This was a truly humbling and eye opening visualisation for me, I knew my wife was hurting as I saw her tears but the true depths of her hurting was kept from me because she did not want me to worry! And the words of our friend, her heartfelt testimony of what I mean to her, how I brought her together with my wife, how I suggested she tried a form of yoga that she may like even though she herself is a very experienced yoga teacher and the spiritual awareness I hold for her, these words really touched my heart and made me think again about my life and the life of others around me.

I came across this video again today and although I have posted it before, I felt the need to post it again; because I / we, and all of humanity needs to check in with reality once in a while, for us all to open our eyes and our hearts to the plight of others and stand up and be counted, to actually do some good, to help someone in need, to give out and share our love, for Humanity, for Mother Earth and for all Beings

I came across this wonderful quote today and felt the urge to write a simple post 🙂

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love ….and then we return home”…..

Wonderful..I just love it. These wonderful words really do resonate with my heart. As you all know, I recently had an actual death experience, but luckily for me I was brought back by the wonderful paramedics in the ambulance, and since that experience; I have been spending countless hours just thinking, well, not so much thinking, rather; clearing my mind of the clutter and actually observing my life and all that goes on in and around my life.

This ’emptiness of mind’ as I like to call it has given me a new perspective of what is and what is not important. I now 100% realise that love for myself, for my family, for friends and all beings is really important to me. This observation has taught me that I am wasting, yes; wasting so much of my life on trivial, unimportant things. I’m doing far too much to get the job done, but not paying any attention to myself, to my health, to my life. I always do my utmost best to do everything on time, to be perfect or as near perfect as possible, to make everyone happy, to do, to do more and to do even more for everyone….but me!….

Love of self, is really important, because if we don’t love ourselves then how can we expect others to love us?

So, we are now coming close to the end of 2015 and I am not one to have New Year Resolutions, to set myself goals for the coming year but I thought, Hey! Why not this year!….So, I have decided that I will clean up my act, sweep the floors and cobwebs our of my life and start 2016 with a fresh outlook, I will love myself, each and every day, I will honour myself each day, I will be thankful for each day, I will be thankful for all I have in my life, I will hold love and compassion in my heart for all beings here on earth, I will do my best to help make our world a better place to live, I will cut out the wasted hours and turn these hours into positive acts of kindness to myself and to others, I will write more, I will write that book that I have promised to do for the past ???? How many years, I will spend more time with my family and friends, I will spend more time in nature, I will meditate more, I will want for less….and

I will contemplate on and learn from all my past experiences, I will grow more spiritually, I will Love…and…after doing all I can and after ‘Living the rest of my life to the full’…

As you know I have been dealing with the emotions and changes to my life since my sudden death and out of body experience last week and also to the coming back to the life through the wonderful care and efforts of the paramedics in the ambulance.

These past few days have been challenging, enlightening, emotional, worrying and wonderful all at the same time. I certainly have a fresh and new outlook on life, and my days are more open to ‘what ever will be will be’ attitude and I certainly look at life through a fresh set of eyes, my mind and body has been dealing with emotions maybe from this lifetime and also possibly from previous lifetimes as I continue to integrate all that happened last week. One minute I’m fine, sitting with a smile on my face as I look at the sun, the trees or whatever I’m looking at but a second later I’m in floods of tears!….Tears of sadness and tears of happiness, I know I should not look back because I cannot change the past, what happened; happened and I also cannot change the future, so whatever will be, will be!..But, you know how our ego minds work, playing tricks on us, making us look back and re-live the pain and suffering or making us fear the future, the fear that it may happen again!…Well, yeah, I am doing both from time to time. I meditate a lot, I connect with my heart, with my soul and with my divine self. I know ‘all is well’, there are no demons waiting to pounce on me in the dark of night, and,..actually, I am at peace with myself. But, after all I am living this life in this human form so I must honour that too and try to control that playful and mischievous Ego Mind and get back on track with my life here on Earth and back on track with my spiritual journey.

I did two ‘Ascended Master Channelling Sessions’ for two people in Australia today, I realised that these were the first channelling sessions since my death experience last week, and I noticed that my consciousness has shifted, my channel connected much quicker than before and the flow of energy and messages flowed so much quicker too, also I noticed much more feeling, especially in my crown chakra and heart chakra as the energy flowed and the light filled my channel with grace and ease.

So, am I the same person as I was one week ago…physically ‘yes’, mentally…hum, ‘not sure’, energetically, ‘no way’ 🙂 Life goes on and I’m continuing to learn, to evolve and to take these life experiences and use them to do good. 🙂

I came across this image and quote by ‘Thich Nhat Hanh this morning and I just had to use it and create a post as a follow up to my previous two posts. Because his statement is so true “The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart”…Wow!

I always felt that my heart was very open and very free, I always hold love in my heart and share my love freely with all, and I truly felt that my life was full of happiness. Yes, we all have bad days, days in which we feel unhappy, unhappy with a relationship, unhappy with our family, our children, unhappiness at work, blah, blah, blah…but generally I felt happy and for most of the time you will always see a smile on my face and I would certainly always try to put a smile on yours 🙂

But how do you really measure happiness?…..

I have been through a few radicle issues and experiences this past few days following on from my sudden death, the experience of watching my body being worked on in the ambulance from above; I guess from the viewpoint of my soul, from my energy being, the true me, and, I realised that I am a being of light, pure energy and my body is just a vessel, a place where my soul has laid its hat for this lifetime, and I am in this body for a brief time, the briefest of time and how easy it is for this life to be STOPPED and for my soul to take flight and move on to its next incarnation, maybe within another physical body here on earth, who really knows!

So what is happiness for me now?…

Well, the jurors are still out thinking about that but what I can say right here and now is….I see life so very differently from that of three days ago, I have always had very strong thoughts on what was and is important in my life, family, friends, humanity, the environment, love, my spirituality etc…But has that changed from this experience?….Yes, it has!

Life is short as I said, and none of us is in control of when its time for us to leave, death is waiting for us all!…… I now have no problem with that, and I now know there is a ‘light at the end of that tunnel’ so to say, and my soul will continue its journey and take me on to continue my service. I now in these past three days sit and contemplate more, I sit in silence, meditate, calm my mind and just be ‘me’, I’m spending more time with me, connecting with my heart and my soul, I look out of the window and actually pay attention, real attention to all the beauty that my eyes can see, what a wonder this is 🙂 The slight differences in the colours of the sky, the shades of blue like the full range of mixed colours on the artist’s palette, the white, the grey and the tints of brown and blue within the clouds, the sun, the shadows, the trees, the green, the brown, the yellow leaves falling to the ground with each gust of wind that passes through the leaves, the noises of my day, the cars on the street, the hum of life as it passes me by, the warmth of my chair, the feeling of unconditional love and warmth as my little dogs pass by my legs as I sit writing this post….My coffee, its aroma, the steam rising from the cup, drawing me in, intoxicating me with its richness, my mind, its openness, its instant ability to just do, the way it directs my fingers to dance its thoughts upon my keyboard…..and my wife ‘May’, the thoughts of her right now, the love she has for me, the support and caring she has for me, her very being, her beauty, her voice, her grace, her compassion, her kindness….My journey, my pathway, my life…where will it take me?

Life is to live, we spend too much time dealing with things of low importance and low value but for most we never even realise these very facts, we amble through life thinking we are happy until the end of days comes and we think ‘I wish I had done that’….!

Well for me, I am going to do ‘That’…I am going to live my life, I am going to do what makes me happy 🙂 …..As I now really, really understand that happiness does not have to have a $ value attached because happiness is what you already have inside your heart, happiness is in each and every one of us….So, my friends, STOP looking for happiness outside, stop looking for happiness through money, just go into your heart and use the senses that were given to you as a child….and LIVE 🙂

Firstly, I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your support, your kind words and your love in response to my anaphylactic shock and death experience this week 🙂 As I read through your comments, tears of joy rolled down my face as I absorbed all the love and healing energies that you sent through to me. This kindness is what our world needs so badly, this love is to be shared throughout humanity like the waves of a tsunami, waves of love, waves of kindness, waves of compassion flowing out from our hearts to all those in need around the world.

Since my heart stopped in that ambulance this week and since seeing my body lying there on that ambulance bed from above and since standing there in front of God surrounded by the ascended masters Angels and Arch Angels, my life has changed…the re-starting of my heart was an act of God, I stood there in front of him and said’ ‘I’m not coming to you today’, and immediately the ambulance man hit my chest again and re-started my heart, my blood began to pump from my heart and oxygen filled my brain…I could clearly hear all that was going on around me and whilst I was gone I could see every detail below me in precise detail, ‘Clarity of vision and clarity of hearing’ was so precise.

But today I am here, here to share my story but more importantly to try to also bring greater awareness to humanity re the importance of Allergies and the reactions like Anaphylactic Shock and what that means and how this can and does lead to death often within minutes!

So, as I sit here today in front of my computer, I feel myself drifting away, drifting away into myself, into my heart and connecting to my soul, this has been a very emotional experience for me, I start to cry for no reason at all, other than to cry in gratitude for my life, for being here and for the chance to live another day….But, I am a lucky one, I have been given another chance at my life, I have been spared so now I must do my best to bring about greater awareness as to the effects of food allergies. I am no expert only to say that for over 50 years of my life I have had ‘NO’ food allergies whatsoever. Two years ago; one evening my lip started to swell up for no reason, and it went down again after a couple of hours, no real discomfort only strange looking!…A few days later my tongue started to swell, it got so big it felt like I would choke as I was finding it difficult to breathe 😦 I was given an antihistamine tablet which started to work within minutes and eventually my tongue shrank back down to its normal size. This happened a couple more times over the following weeks and we tried to find any connections to food and to drinks that may have caused these reactions…but nothing was the same! Different times of day or night, not connected in time to eating food and different food and or drinks were consumed each time…So what could I do? Well, I went to the hospital, they gave me blood tests and an allergy skin prick test where they test you for the most common food and substance allergies like pollen, etc but nothing showed too badly, my skin did react to a couple of thinks like cat hairs and dust but nothing conclusive….

…But things started to escalate, the problems and reactions became more intense each time, my face would start to swell, my eyes to bulge, my lips and tongue swell up so big and for so long I could not go out often staying swollen for hours at a time and each time I would need to increase my doses of antihistamine tablets just to control and start to reverse the effects of the reaction!

I made another hospital appointment and this time i made sure they did a full blood workout where more items were checked and low and behold I was ‘Off the Charts’ with ‘EGGS’ and high with ‘Lobster’, and ‘Pollution, basically dust from the atmosphere’. Now, I live in China so the last one, pollution, dust in the atmosphere is expected because of the massive growth in buildings and construction here, the use of fossil fuels and who know what else in the atmosphere but in saying that , it is slowly getting better as things are proactively being done to clean up the country 🙂 But Eggs!..Who knew!…I have eaten eggs all my life, I loved eggs, they were always in our house and a part of our life.

So, why eggs?….Why now?…What can I do?…..

There was no answer, no one could tell me why all of a sudden after more than 50 years of life I suddenly became so highly allergic to eggs!…

But, the worst thing is…Do you realise how many things eggs are in?

I found myself reacting all the time, swollen lips, tongue, face, heat rashes, itchy skin, swollen fingers, etc, etc; but most often I could not see any eggs in the food I was eating…but of course; there are eggs hidden in the food, or food has been processed on the same production lines that contained eggs in another food processes. Luckily for some, food packaging has food items listed or food allergies listed…but still THOUSANDS’ of foods are not listed with allergy information and most packages just don’t tell you if eggs have been processed on the same production lines as the product you are looking at now!..So, it’s a game of chance, a game of chance that CAN AND DOES LEAD TO DEATH, take my word for it as it happened to me this week!

There are many forms of food allergies, ‘Nuts’ are probably one that we are most used to hearing about but how to we bring awareness to humanity, how do we make waiters, restaurant staff, chefs, cooks and shop assistants know how dangerous food items are and how seriously they should take this?….I know from my experience that no one in my restaurant knew about food allergies, I mad it clear to them when ordering that I could not have eggs or mayonnaise in my sandwich, I looked at my food before I started to eat; but the mayonnaise was hidden to my view, the menus did not list all items…just think about this folks….

When you go for a burger, or go to a sandwich shop ‘Does the sandwich or burger ‘ state all the facts, do they show all things that could give allergic reaction?…NO, when I go to a fresh sandwich shop i see wonderful sandwiches, baguettes, ciabatta, panini’s etc….but almost all contain mayonnaise…..and often there is no alternative, but the ‘Majority of employees working in these establishments have NO idea about allergies or the consequences of feeding you something that might just ‘KILL’ YOU!

My Dear Friends, this post is not about me, it is about the thousands that have died through Al]naphalactic shock, through food or drink consumption, through no fault of their own but through the lack of awareness, through the lack of a sense of ‘Ownership’ and ‘Responsibility’ on behalf of the ‘Food Manufacturers’, ‘Packaging Companies’, ‘Food Suppliers’, ‘Supermarkets’ and of course the Resturant and Shop Owners and their Staff….

I’m a lucky one, I was allowed another day, so please help me share this important message around the world, please translate and share if you can and let’s try to save live….because ‘ People Matter’!

Today I have more gratitude than ever, I am so thankful for every single aspect of my life because ‘Yesterday I Died’!

I went out for lunch during my normal working day, sat down in a local restaurant and ordered a sandwich for my lunch, I made sure that I told the waiter that I MUST not have any mayonnaise or eggs as I am highly allergic, and he assured me that was ok and took my simple order.My lunch came and I did my usual quick check inside the sandwich and all seemed to be well but after a few mouthfuls I realised something was very wrong, I started to get hot and my body was in reaction, I opened the sandwich fully only to find mayonnaise under the lettuce at the bottom of the sandwich, I quickly called the waiter and luckily I had antihistamine tablets with me so I quickly took 6, then called my wife from my mobile phone as I knew she was only a couple of blocks away from where I was having lunch. My wife arrived very quickly and immediately called an ambulance, in between the call and the ambulance arriving I went into severe anaphylactic shock!

The ambulance crew lifted me onto a stretcher and quickly got me into the ambulance, I could hear my wife telling them the problem and showing them my tablets, I was hooked up to a heart monitor, in-line drip just before the anaphylactic shock took its toll stopping my heart and I was dead…..

I could clearly see myself rise up from my body and look down on myself lying there, my wife watching me, calling to me and the ambulance man pushing adrenalin and Epinephrin into my body then starting to do CPR on my chest….

….. I was with God, surrounded by the Ascended Masters, Angels and Arch Angels, it was peaceful and I was very calm and at ease, I spoke out loud to God saying “I will not come to join you today” and when I said these words the last hit to my chest started my heart once again…

I was back…..

Into the hospital, onto a monitor, given more medication a drip of adrenaline, antihistamine and oxygen, after an hour or so I started to come around and understand where I was, my beautiful wife calling to me and holding my hand, tears of happiness in her eyes as I opened mine 🙂

I was back and intent on staying here…

Yesterday I died but today I live…..

I’m going through some serious emotions right now, my wife and I shared lots of tears together last night, tears from me; re the experience of dying, from the of the out of body experience and the coming back to life, and my wife for seeing me die and then the joy of seeing me come back to life!

My Dear Friends, life it so precious and too short, we never know when it is our time to leave this life, so please, enjoy every minute that you have, be grateful for all you have, live your life with love, with happiness and with compassion.

Isn’t that the truth?…Is poverty, famine, greed, war, disease, injustice in our world only God’s problem?

Should we wait for him/her to deal with it for us, or, should we stand up and be counted?…..Actually get up off our butt’s and do something about the problems in our world!

We are after all, guardians of this planet, guardians for our future, for the future of our children. We all have an obligation to take ownership of what goes on in our world, we are all part of humanity, we are all part of the problem and the possible solution….We are stronger than we think, we can do something about these problems and issues, we can make change, we can stop greed, we can stop injustice, we can stop starvation, we can ALL make a difference and change the future….

We are but a grain of sand amongst billions of other grains of sand, but we are all ‘One’, we all come from the same seed of creation and we owe it to ourselves, to our brothers and sisters of humanity, we owe it to our ancestors, we owe it to our children, we owe it to our grandchildren, we owe it to OURSELVES!

Today is the day for you to sit up, look in the mirror and say “I am part of the problem and, I am part of the solution’ and ‘I can make a difference to this world, our world’..

Go on my friends, do a pledge to yourself, stand up and be counted and be a part of the change you want to see in this ‘Our’ world 🙂 Then go out and actually do something! Join a peace group, help out in a homeless shelter, sign a petition, stop using a product or buying food, drink or fuel from the companies that are polluting our planet, poisoning our children, draining our natural water systems, taking advantage of low wages and not paying their taxes. Stand up for yourself, for your family, for your future 🙂

I’m a great follower of Alan Watts the British born Philosopher and love listening to his explanations on life, this one re acceptance of death really helped me through a few challenges in my life after the passing of loved ones.

I came across this video today and I just had to share it with; you as to me it shows the total respect these school kids had for their formal teacher and also the awesome power of the Haka and the deep routed spiritual beliefs of the Maori people.

The entire school performing the Haka during the arrival of Mr. Tamatea in the hearse. This was a very emotional and powerful performance. We are extremely proud of our boys’ performance and we know that Mr Tamatea would be too.

For those watching in other parts of the world, this is our school Haka. This is the translation:
Be prepared take hold
Reach out
We of Palmerston North Boys’ High School stand steadfast
Within our Domain
Standing firm
Standing proud
Standing with respect
To uphold
To uplift
To uplift
To uphold
The prestige of our school
Our aims are to seek knowledge
And reach our goals and aspirations
Seek the horizon of aspirations
And draw near to it
Those aspirations that are near, take them
And it be known, yes, let it be known
Let your adrenalin abound high above
It is done!!!

I watched this video and read many Chinese articles about this brave and very articulate little boy Chen Xiao Tian and his final wishes to save his mothers life by gifting her his kidney after he passed away. Such wisdom, such bravery and unconditional love from this tiny little boy.

There are angels amongst us, watching over us and helping us do the right thing when our time is called.

Blessings to Chen Xiao Tian, may his soul rest in peace and may he fly freely with the angels who watch over humanity.

Fear of failure, fear of loosing face, the fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, the fear of success….Whatever fears you face in your life it’s now time for you to face them.

There are literally millions of labels we can place on words and call them fears, as in the image above, the list is endless and different fears attack each and every one of us, and we react to these fears in different ways.

Every time we turn our backs on a fear and try to fight it, it becomes a pointless exercise and waste of our time, because fighting our fears places us in a ‘battle’ with that fear forever, whilst facing these fears will give us ‘freedom’ forever.

Our minds play tricks on us all the time, ‘the devil in our head’, ‘our sub conscious mind’, our Ego’s’ constantly chatter to us laying doubts on our ability to achieve, playing reference to things that have gone wrong in the past, and nagging us to stop right there and give up!…”Don’t be stupid, you know you will fail”, “It’s no point you doing that because no one will listen to you”, “Ah, they are just begging because they are too lazy to work so don’t give them your money”, “It’s not your problem, don’t get involved or it will end in tears, “Leave your job, are you stupid”, “Your not smart enough or worthy enough to do or go somewhere”……..How many of you have had these thoughts go through your head?

Strategies for Overcoming Fear

Acknowledge the fear. Whether it’s imagined or real, the first step in overcoming fear is to admit that it exists. We all have fears; it’s human nature. Denying or ignoring them doesn’t make them go away.

Analyze it. Where does it come from? Is it real or imagined? Can it be put in a different context? For instance if you think it through to its logical conclusion, what’s the worst that can happen to you? Once you’ve determined what that might be, ask yourself if you can deal with, or overcome it. More often than not, once you go through the process of analyzing it, the fear isn’t as scary as you originally imagined.

Face it. Allow yourself to feel it, and then do it anyway. Act in spite of your fear and treat is as a challenge for personal growth and an opportunity to become stronger.

Be persistent. Do the thing you fear over and over again. By doing it repeatedly it loses its power over you and you become less vulnerable to it.

Develop courage. Sometimes the answer may not be to conquer a particular fear; it may be to develop courage. If you focus too much on any one fear instead of trying to build courage, you may in fact, intensify it. By developing courage you build self-confidence and resilience. You also build a healthy approach towards facing all fear.

Our fears of failure can limit us and keep us from living the life we want to. When we inevitably experience rejection or disappointment, we have to be hardy in our way of coping with these struggles. Overcoming our critical inner voice can be a vital step in becoming more emotionally resilient. We can learn skills to become hardier, and we can face challenges with fewer internal setbacks. Yet, the first step in taking on this new confidence is shedding the baggage of our past, the critical inner voices that falsely feed our fears of failure.

If you have chance look at a child, an elderly person or someone who is really poor, observe their behaviours and take note of how they live their lives.

Imagine yourself sitting on the deck of a beautiful white yacht, the sun shining its warm rays on your skin and the wind filling the sails speeding you along a beautiful deep blue ocean. You are watching dolphins playing nearby. They jump out of the water one after another, they spin gracefully through the air in an arc before diving back into the sea.

The arc is not unlike the cycle of life and death for human beings. We appear in this world like the dolphin jumping out of the water, visible for a short time. Before long, we return to mother nature like the dolphin diving back into the ocean, to complete the circle of life that began there.

When a dolphin disappears beneath the waves, we feel no need to grieve because we know it is still there, it is still alright, even if we can no longer see it. Loved ones who pass on are just like that. They have made the transition, but they do not suddenly cease to exist. They are still there. They are still alright, even though we can no longer see them.

One day it will be your turn to pass on yourself. As you plunge into the waves, you will find the dolphins waiting for you. You will be reunited with your loved ones and once again swim with them..together through the infinite oceans of mother nature.

If you know people who are struggling with grief, give them the gift of caring.Talk to them and listen, just be there and offer a shoulder for them to cry on. When the time is right, let them know that we are all part of something that always has been and always will be. There is birth and death for the body, but not for the soul. Share the truth that the passing of a loved one is but a temporary separation, and let the truth set them free.

R.I.P Robin Williams, your relentless pursuit of happiness has made millions of us smile and your tears of joy have kept us company through the years. May you now be freed from your internal suffering and once again join your loved ones and swim free with the dolphins in Mother Earths great and infinite oceans of love.

In a world where war is just a video game to some, it’s perhaps worth taking time to remember the true cost of war.
在当今世界，战争对于一些人来说只不过是视频游戏，而对于战争的真正代价可能会需要时间铭记在心。

This weekend saw the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, which over 4 years, grew to claim the lives of over 9’000’000 （Yes thats 9 Million) service personnel from countries around the world. During WWI, across Europe, the flower of the red poppy became a symbol for remembering all those lost in War. As part of the commemorations this weekend in London, British artist Paul Cummings placed 888’246 ceramic flowers around the Tower of London – one flower for each soul lost from countries around what was then the British Empire.
刚过去的周末中我们见证了第一次世界大战爆发的100周年纪念日，在那4年里世界各国参战牺牲的总人数超过了9千万人。一战期间，在欧洲大陆的这片土地上，红色的罂粟花成为了战争中所有遗失祭奠的象征。在本周的伦敦为了纪念一战，英国艺术家保罗·卡明斯伦敦塔周围放置888’246陶瓷花 —一朵花象征着每一位在一战中为大英帝国所壮烈牺牲的灵魂。

Here are some images of the exhibition.
下方陈列一些相关图片

The poppy is a way of not forgetting the sacrifice of those who didn’t return home to their loved ones because of War and whilst we should never forget the price they paid, we should also look forward and remember that with a little more understanding, kindness and love for those of us who walk the Earth with us today, we could potentially have less need for more poppies in the future.
罂粟花一种用来祭奠那些在战中为国捐躯、壮烈牺牲的英魂，由于战争导致其无法回到所心爱的人身边，然而我们应该永远铭记所付出的代价，同时也应该向前看，记住对身边的每一位多一分理解，仁慈与关爱，我们可能对那些未来的英勇之士给予的太少。

It’s now 2014, 100 years on since the start of what they called “The Great War’, and I can still see no real progress, there have been over 260 major wars fought around the world since 1918 the end of World War 1 and they still rage on, mainly due to Religion or Greed by governments and corporations to control natural resources.

Now is the time to really step back and look at these pictures, every one of those red poppies represents a soldier killed in that 1 war alone, I wonder how many have fallen since? What would that picture look like and how far would the poppies go? A frightening thought my friends!………….Here is the reality of that frightening thought……….

I think I have lost count of the number of times I have said this to my friends, colleagues, students and clients here in China over the past 12 or more years. It’s strange but we are all driven to want more, have more and do more throughout our lives and no more so that emerging countries like China, India, and so on. I guess it’s understandable to want a better life, to have a good job that pays well, to own a house, have a car and enjoy all the trappings that these things bring into your life, but one day you realise that these are just ‘Things’, and they cannot do anything for us in our times of need! They cannot make you well again if you fall terminally ill, they cannot take away the pain of loosing someone close to you or stop the hurting inside if you are in a deep depression. Money does however give you options, I.e to do something or not but it has been my experience that chasing the dream of endless supplies of money and possessions does not bring you happiness, infact it quite often brings deep sadness and loneliness 😦 Jim Carey is not the only one to have experienced this, many millions of people have forged on through their lives searching and working for more, more money, more possessions..things… only to crash and burn when a serious problem falls on them.

I was one of these people who had everything,the very successful company, all the money I could want / need, a beautiful home, big flashy cars worth 100’s of thousands of dollars, the beautiful family, incredible holidays, every possession I could ever need but when that call came from my father telling me my mum had cancer and asking me to do something…Wow! That floored me like a punch from a heavyweight boxer, I was out for the count and there was nothing that all my money and possessions could do, I was lost, in a downward spiral and all I could do was give my mum the love and support she needed, be there for my dad, make sure he was looked after with my family all around him and provide the support for my children in their time of need after her passing. This like many other devastating tragedies that happen to us make you aware of what is in fact important in our lives. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t say you should not be successful, have dreams or work hard for a living, what I mean is we need to realise what is important to us and to make use of the time we have on this earth, protect ourselves, our families and friends and live our lives with love and happiness in our hearts.
Don’t go through your life pushing ever harder each and everyday and miss what’s around you already, don’t miss out on your children growing up, don’t miss out on the love you can give to your family and friends,…Just Live 🙂

Now, I know I am not His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Jesus Christ, Allah, The Buddha, Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, Tich Nhat Hanh, Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Amma, Oprah, Deepak Chopra, Biame, or any other global leader, I am just a simple man, someone who cares, someone who wants to make a difference, someone who sheds tears at the state of our world and someone who believes that we can make a difference and who believes in the faith of coming together as one in the name of our children.

So let’s take a look at the following statement.

“An individual has not started living until he/she can rise above the narrow confines of his/her individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

Wow! Now that’s a statement!

But what does it mean to you and I, to us so called normal people on the streets of earth!

Well, I think this statement is a sort of wake up call to us all, we need it shouting from the rooftops, into our ears in every language known to mankind, in every country, every state, every city, every town and every village…. We really need this wake up call, a call to action, a call to make us wake up and smell the roses, a call to enlighten us all to the state of our world.

I could go on for ever and a day telling you about poverty, about disease, about starvation, about genocide, about wars, about natural disasters, about corporate and political greed and control; but will it make a difference to you? Maybe to some of you who read my blog and some of you who have a spiritual bias and a care for what’s right and wrong with our world, but to the majority of people in our world, to the majority of our brothers and sisters in every country, they will not even take a moment to read this blog because it is not on their radar, they have no interest in what is going on in other countries, they have no care if a child dies today from starvation or dysentery, they have no care that young teenage girls and boys are being trafficked from one country to another into prostitution and slave labor, they have no care that our planet is being devastated by fracking to satisfy insatiable corporate greed, they have no care that our forests; the lungs of our planet are being wiped out to feed the need of companies worldwide, they have no care that our oceans and rivers are being polluted beyond all recovery….

But would they pay attention if our voices were louder, if we were more actively promoting each other, passing on our words of wisdom, passing on our voices of concern and bringing them a connection, I mean a real connection of what is happening in our world directly to them, show them how one thing connects to another and how each of us is connected through our lifestyles, our purchasing habits, through our food and through our drinks!

We MUST speak out, we must awaken more people all around the world and raise them up from the narrow confines of their own individualistic concerns and make them aware of the realities and suffering that our brothers and sisters, our planet and all the creatures on it are going through in order to provide the food on their table, the clothes on their back, the furniture they sit on, the fuel that heats their home and all the commodities that go into the production of the everyday goods they use and take for granted! Let’s together awaken the people of our planet , help them to see beyond their own front door, to take real notice, to make changes to their lifestyles, changes for the better, that will bring lasting effects and start healing our world for our children and grandchildren’s sake !

Today, Friday 28th February could be the start of that process, If I send out this blog and one of you sends out to two and those two send to 4 and those 4 send to 8 and those 8 send to 16 and those 16 send to 32 and those 32 send to 64, etc we could soon awaken our world!
Please take action my friends ☺